


Coming on the Common Tongue

by ashembie



Category: Temeraire - Naomi Novik
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blowjobs, Book 1: His Majesty's Dragon, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Power Dynamics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-16
Updated: 2020-05-16
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:21:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24148867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashembie/pseuds/ashembie
Summary: This has to stop. Laurence shoves Granby away so hard the door rattles in its frame. He does his best to say what he rehearsed, but Granby just narrows his eyes, cocks his head on one side, and interrupts before Laurence has said more than a half dozen words.“I want to call you ‘sir’ while you suck me off.” He announces carelessly. Laurence chokes on the air in his throat. Granby settles himself against the door, loose-limbed and hot-eyed, and starts stroking himself through his trousers. He looks regal and expectant, and every movement of his hand sets Laurence’s traitorous mouth to watering.Laurence nearly does himself an injury falling to his knees.
Relationships: John Granby/William Laurence
Comments: 16
Kudos: 38





	Coming on the Common Tongue

**Author's Note:**

> book one rivalry but with sex \o/
> 
> shout out to my cheerleaders in the Temeraire discord, and my beta reader erebones

God forgive him, but it’s so good. The first time was explosive, a disagreement fueled by alcohol and exhaustion and they swore afterwards it would never happen again. 

It happens again. Several times. Many times. Hot kisses and frantic hands, working toward that one blissful moment where the world and its troubles vanished. Granby kisses and gropes and licks like it would kill him to stop, and Laurence fights him every step of the way to try and regain some measure of control. He always loses. He's helpless to resist Granby's rough hands and his skillful tongue, but he gives as good as he gets. Granby is almost constantly stitching his shirts, victims of Laurence's frustration. 

Both of them are fierce fighters, and their natures make them reckless. Laurence lets himself be kissed in empty corridors, and tucked under Temeraire’s wing - not once but several times, to his immense shame - whenever there’s a moment and no-one can see. Someone will. What will they do then? Granby reassigned and sent to a different covert, probably demoted. Laurence will keep his rank because Temeraire will accept no other captain, but any goodwill or respect he has built in the corps will be demolished, never to be salvaged. 

It has to stop. One night, as has become their terrible habit, Granby follows him up to his bedroom in the tower, tormenting him the whole walk there with ghost touches to his arm and the small of his back. Laurence mistakenly believes that if he doesn’t make a point of inviting Granby in that he will leave; not so. Granby has barely kicked the door shut behind him before he digs his fingers into Laurence’s coat and hauls him in close for a bruising kiss. 

He greedily pushes his hands into Laurence’s hair, tugging Laurence’s mouth to where he wants it: under his tongue and teeth, and his hot panting breaths. Being kissed by Granby is much like arguing with him, but Laurence, for his part, has never been one to roll over and concede defeat. He bites back, sucks Granby’s lower lip into his mouth and scrapes his teeth over it. Victory tastes like Granby breathing unsteadily against Laurence’s mouth. 

No. No, this has to stop. Laurence shoves Granby away so hard the door rattles in its frame. He does his best to say what he rehearsed, but Granby just narrows his eyes, cocks his head on one side, and interrupts before Laurence has said more than a half dozen words. 

“I want to call you ‘sir’ while you suck me off,” he announces carelessly. Laurence chokes on the air in his throat. Granby settles himself against the door, loose-limbed and hot-eyed, and starts stroking himself through his trousers. He looks regal and expectant, and every movement of his hand sets Laurence’s traitorous mouth to watering.

Laurence nearly does himself an injury falling to his knees. 

He runs his hands up Granby’s strong thighs and leans in to mouth at the front of his trousers, but Granby grasps his hair and forces his head back. His neck is kept at a near uncomfortable angle while Granby opens his own trousers and lays himself bare with his free hand. Laurence blindly helps him tug his trousers down to his knees and saliva is pooling in his mouth by the time Granby is naked from knees to hips, his cock hard and curling up against his stomach. Laurence wants to lick every inch of naked skin available to him, but the need to have him in his mouth overtakes it. That Laurence is the one on his knees rather than be pushing Granby down is infuriating.

“May I, Lieutenant?” His voice is already rough with desire. With a groan, Granby’s eyes flutter closed above him, but when he opens them again his gaze is sharp.

The hand not in Laurence’s hair cups his jaw, and Granby runs his thumb over his kiss-reddened lower lip before sliding it into his mouth. Laurence moans, sweeps his tongue over his thumb, sucks it deeper into his mouth, and keeps his eyes facing heavenward. Granby looks down at him hungrily. He thrusts his thumb between Laurence’s lips until they are slick with saliva. It’s a parody of what Laurence really wants, and frustration burns in his gut. 

He catches Granby’s wrist, holds it tight enough to feel the bones move, and scrapes his teeth over the sensitive pad of Granby’s thumb _hard_. Granby hisses and yanks his hand out of Laurence’s grasp. His thumb leaves Laurence’s mouth with a wet noise; a strand of saliva connecting them breaks, and leaves Laurence’s chin wet. Granby pushes at Laurence’s head demandingly, but Laurence squares his shoulders and refuses to move. Discipline has been his backbone for more than half his life. He won’t be the first to break. 

Instead, Laurence sucks gently on a hipbone, and then bites until a red mark blooms on his pale skin. Granby is pushing his hips up restlessly, the wet tip of his cock leaving glistening trails on his shirt, and his fingers are clutching white-knuckled at Laurence's hair and his shoulder. But he has already proven himself to be a stubborn, obstinate man, and now he has received a challenge, Laurence knows he will not allow it to go unanswered.

“Sir,” Granby growls. His hips twitch under Laurence’s hands. 

Laurence arches one eyebrow inquisitively. Granby’s cheeks are always slightly red from sunburn, but now the flush spreads across his faces and down his neck, broken only by the blooming pattern of lovemarks Laurence left days earlier. Laurence considers letting him out of his misery for a minute, and then he presses a kiss to the inside of Granby’s thigh instead.

Granby curses and tries to spread his legs further apart, but his own trousers stop him from doing more than just sliding slightly down the door. Laurence feels his own arousal kick up a notch at Granby’s obvious need when Laurence has barely touched him with his mouth. 

“Please, sir,” Granby says through gritted teeth. The concession infuriates him just as it satisfies Laurence. Laurence waits for him to swear at him again, but he doesn’t, so Laurence rewards him by sinking his teeth into the soft skin on the inside of Granby’s thigh. Granby makes a high-pitched noise like all the air has just been punched out of his lungs. 

“Again,” Laurence murmurs into milk-white skin, almost too soft to be heard. From above him he hears Granby groan, and the hand in his hair pulls until he’s looking Granby in the eyes again. Granby looks down at Laurence, his hair sticking to his forehead, and his cheeks almost as red as his bitten lips, and the wild look in his eyes sends a stab of hunger through Laurence’s gut. 

“Again,” Laurence repeats, louder this time, and presses a soft, reverent kiss to the very base of Granby’s cock.

Granby makes a strangled sort of noise and his head hits the door with an alarming thunk.

“ _Please_ sir!” Granby shouts in frustration. Granby doesn’t beg prettily, or coquettishly like some of the men Laurence has taken to bed. But he does beg, and Laurence has always approved of rewarding the men who follow his orders. 

Laurence mouths his way up his cock, watching Granby’s chest rise and fall rapidly through his eyelashes. The first touch of his tongue to the head of Granby’s cock makes Granby swear again, breathlessly, hands clenched so tight in Laurence’s hair that his queue has come unbound. With gold framing the edge of his vision, Laurence licks, catlike, and the way it makes Granby’s breath go quick and shallow makes him take one hand off Granby’s hip and palm his own cock through his trousers. Granby takes advantage and thrusts up into his mouth. He groans another sir so Laurence opens his mouth wider and sets to it properly.

Despite throwing Granby up against any available surface in the last month, Laurence has yet to use his mouth on him. It has been some time since he last performed this act and he takes a moment to remember how to use his hand for what he can’t fit in his mouth, and how to move and down steadily, slowly, sucking just slightly, and how to use the flat of his tongue to make a sharp moan punch out of Granby like he's been struck. 

Granby’s hips are twitching like he wants to thrust up into Laurence’s mouth, which isn’t something Laurence has ever allowed before, but he can’t deny that there is something appealing about the thought of being restrained, being at Granby's whim, having to make do with mouth alone to please him. He knows that he can accomplish it; Granby's cries above him are indication of that. The thought of Granby grasping his hair and holding him still, of Granby taking his own pleasure, fucking his mouth—

He could be the exception, Laurence thinks.

“I— _fuck_ , sir, please, I’m—” Granby tries, breathless and wild, his hands clenching in Laurence’s hair. Laurence hums, looks up so he can see how red Granby has bitten his lip, how wide his pupils are blown with arousal, how his dark hair looks black from sweat at his temples. Laurence wants more of him, and pulls off Granby’s cock, ignoring his protestations. Laurence yanks Granby’s trousers down until they’re caught on the tops of his boots, and then with his hand under Granby’s knee, shoves his leg up so he can duck under the fabric of his trousers and get it around the back of his neck. Granby, now wise to Laurence’s plan, rests his leg on Laurence’s shoulder; he wobbles dangerously before he throws a hand up to catch himself on the door frame. The heel of his boot digs painfully into Laurence’s back as he pulls Laurence forward.

He presses his fingers between Granby's cheeks, and the lightest touch punches the air out of Granby's lungs. 

"Oh," Granby breathes, his head falling back with another thump. This is something new as well. Laurence is glad his gamble has paid off. Granby tries to spread his legs wider for Laurence, but he wobbles again until Laurence grabs his waist and steadies him. “Oh _yes_ , please sir -” 

Laurence sucks on two of his own fingers, getting them as slick and wet as he can, then presses against his entrance and rubs gentle circles there. Granby makes choked-off, aborted sounds at the touch of his fingertips, his hips flexing almost imperceptibly before he forces himself still. 

Laurence kisses and licks Granby's cock as he eases one finger inside him, slow and stroking until Granby gives a long, satisfied sigh and starts to relax around him. He has his breath back under control, no longer panting and desperate but even and careful. That won’t do. Once Laurence is certain Granby is comfortable he increases the speed of his finger until Granby makes a frustrated sound in the back of his throat. Laurence’s mouth curves into a grin, and then two slick fingertips pressed against Granby's hole, and Granby's careful breathing goes ragged and sharp. He turns his head towards the arm above his head grasping the door frame, his eyes scrunched shut like it's too much to bear, but he’s eagerly clenching around Laurence’s fingers. 

When Granby bites into his own bicep with a frustrated growl, Laurence muffles his laughter against the soft skin at the inside of Granby's thigh, and twists his fingers in deeper and curves them until he finds the place that makes Granby go wild, makes him thrash and hiss air out through his teeth and toss his head back against the door. He starts moving slowly, just a slight rocking until Granby starts to respond with a hum of pleasure in the back of his throat and the clench of his muscles around Laurence's fingers.

Granby groans and pulls his face away from his arm to stare down at Laurence. His chest is heaving with great, shuddering breaths, and his face and throat are flushed a vibrant red. Laurence looks him in the eye and sucks his cock back into his mouth. Granby spits curses and praise in equal measure as Laurence redoubles his previous efforts, ignoring the ache building in his jaw, and driving his fingers into him. Granby’s cries go unstifled, crashing off the ceiling and walls and Laurence will remember later to be worried about who might hear them, but at this moment there is nothing he regrets, nothing he possibly could have wanted more than Granby, hot and heavy on his tongue, clenching hard around his fingers. 

He closes his eyes and sucks him down as far as he can, pushing past the instinct to gag, breathing through his nose. Granby’s thighs are tense, harder than steel in Laurence’s hand and on his shoulder; his leg flails and his bootheel leaves bruises on Laurence's back. Laurence’s throat feels full, and he swallows instinctively, and Granby yells, loud, too loud, and comes, long and hard, and Laurence swallows it all. 

Granby breathes hard and fast above him while Laurence licks him clean, then he lets himself be tugged to his feet by Granby’s eager hands. Granby licks into his mouth hard and rough and wet, moaning like just the taste of himself in Laurence’s mouth could get him hard again. 

"Thank you sir," he slurs against Laurence's mouth. For once there is no artifice in the phrase. "Come here - _fuck_ , let me - I want -"

Buttons bounce on the floor as Granby tears open Laurence’s trousers, and Laurence doesn’t get a chance to reprimand him as his hand wraps around his aching cock and he abruptly has no breath left in his lungs. The whole world is reduced to Granby stroking him hard and fast, Granby kissing his neck, Granby whispering “Do you want to fuck me?”, and Laurence drops his head onto Granby’s shoulder to muffle his shout as he's pushed over the edge and what is left of him is gasping and shaking as he comes. 

They stand there entwined together, bare skin sticking where they touch, panting breaths slowly evening out. Laurence leans almost his full weight onto Granby against the door. Granby’s arm around his waist keeps him secure. It feels like hours, days, before Laurence can slowly raise his head from where he’s tucked into Granby’s neck, but doesn’t step away. He drags his nose against the length of Granby’s neck, along the edge of his jaw, and up to his ear. Laurence’s eyes flutter closed and leave butterfly kisses on Granby’s perpetually sunburnt cheeks. 

He is never more relaxed than when he is slumped in Granby’s arms. It’s hard to remember why this is the opposite of what he wanted tonight. 

Eventually the state of their clothes and the stiffness of muscles force them from their embrace. Laurence shrugs out of his coat as he steps away from Granby, and drops it on the back of his chair, intending to undress for bed. He sits on his bed to take off his boots and watches from the corner of his eyes as Granby tugs his trousers up languidly and moves to Laurence’s washstand to compose himself. He looks breathless and dazed, and more than a little punch-drunk; Laurence knows he himself must look similarly debauched.

All of Granby’s spend has been licked away from his skin by Laurence’s eager tongue, but his shirt is ruined with evidence of Laurence’s orgasm. Even as he sits exhausted from what they have just done together, Laurence blushes. 

“You can’t leave in that,” Laurence says. His voice sounds unnaturally loud in the not quite companionable silence that fell upon them. Judging from how Granby twitches in surprise, he feels the same. He meets Laurence’s eyes and his lips quirk up in a mocking smile. His lips are bitten red and swollen, and Laurence feels a pang of hunger.

“I suppose walking back to my room with no shirt entirely will be much less suspicious,” Granby scoffs.

“Take one of mine,” Laurence offers. Granby eyes him suspiciously. How the offer of a spare shirt could be perceived as a trick is beyond Laurence, but now that they aren’t united in a carnal act Granby’s near open hostility has returned in full force.

“Alright,” Granby says abruptly, and goes back to washing his face. Laurence blinks. He expected much more resistance. But he isn’t going to poke the dragon, so to speak. He changes into his nightshirt and then pulls out a fresh shirt for Granby. When he turns around, Granby is pulling Laurence’s shirt from today over his head.

They both stare at each other stupidly for a moment. Then Granby snorts and starts tucking his (Laurence’s) shirt in.

“You would offer a clean shirt for a five minute walk, wouldn’t you?” Granby sounds almost _fond_ of Laurence’s habits. Then he catches himself and Laurence can almost _see_ Granby wrapping that hostility around himself like armour, “ _I_ don’t care to give the staff more laundry than necessary.”

It is hardly his most scathing remark; Laurence is a little lost at how to respond. So he doesn’t.

“Goodnight then,” he says, lacking anything else to say.

“See you in the morning,” Granby’s eyes find his, “Sir.”

Then he’s gone. 

After a long moment of mindlessly staring out into the corridor, Laurence crosses his room to close the door. He leans forward and rests his forehead on the wood; it’s still warm from Granby’s back. He allows himself a minute of wallowing. Then with a sigh of defeat, Laurence goes to bed alone.

**Author's Note:**

> coming up in chapter 2: Granby's PoV and Laurence being awkward
> 
> thank you for reading!! please leave a comment to let me know if you liked it - even just a keysmash makes me write faster!!


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